Six sentenced to death over Xinjiang riot

And this is just the first round of trials .

URUMQI, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Six men who were convicted of murder and other crimes in the July 5 riot in Xinjiang were sentenced Monday to death after a first-instance trial, and another man was jailed for life.

Abdukerim Abduwayit, Gheni Yusup, Abdulla Mettohti, Adil Rozi, Nureli Wuxiu'er, and Alim Metyusup were sentenced to death at the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi.

Tayirejan Abulimit was given life imprisonment, a lesser punishment as he admitted charges of murder and robbery and helped the police capture Alim Metyusup.

All seven men had been convicted of murder, and some of them were also convicted of arson or robbery.

The seven were the first to be sentenced over the riot, which left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

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Urumqi party chief sacked

Sacking the Communist party chief for Xinjaing would show weakness , That is why They sacked Li Zhi ! He will take a lot of the blame !
(Maybe those who are responsible for sacking this guy will also be sacked ?)

The Straits times
BEIJING - THE ethnic unrest in the Xinjiang region has claimed its first senior official, but it was not the one that protesters wanted replaced.

Urumqi party chief Li Zhi, 59, was removed from his post, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday. Demonstrators had been demanding the removal of the region's Communist Party chief Wang Lequan instead.

The announcement came during an uneasy calm in the regional capital after three days of protests sparked by a series of bizarre syringe attacks that state media said largely targeted Han Chinese residents.

Chinese media said on Saturday that out of the 25 suspects arrested for the offence, four Uighurs had been indicted for perpetrating such attacks.

A two-line dispatch from China's Xinhua news agency gave no official explanation for the removal of Mr Li, who has spent all of his three decades in politics in various positions in Xinjiang.

'Very few people had asked for Li Zhi to step down,' a Urumqi government official, who asked not to be named, told The Sunday Times. 'Most of the protesters were calling for Wang Lequan's head. Li Zhi is a scapegoat.'

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